I don't like opening images from within PS. I do T&I events and work with teams or groups of 10-20 kids. I shoot JPEGs and like to work on a team at a time. To load and handle images faster, I generally open PS, downsize it to the task bar and then open my window of files on my desktop. From their, I highlight the 10-17 images I want to work with and then drag & drop them to the PS icon on the desktop. PS then comes up filling my screen and the images start popping open.
The problem is, I have now moved my CS2 to my new PC with Vista Home Premium as the OS. VHP is crap in my opinion and this problem is probably because of some silly MS protection feature.
I can no longer drag & drop more than 5 images into the open PS. When I try to d&d, nothing happens at all. I want to be able to do this so has anyone encountered this and found a solution?
larry
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Ouch! That sounds like a nice feature now gone missing.
I'm not a Vista user yet, but I have some understanding of how Windows works that might help you investigate this further...
I assume what you mean by "my window of files on my desktop" is Windows Explorer (or the Vista equivalent).
It sounds as if, under the covers, your dragged images are being passed to CS2 via a command line, and there are command line length limits. If your images are in a deep subfolder, the path to each image as passed to Photoshop is quite long, and that can limit the number of files you can pass on one command line. The command line is how files are normally passed to Photoshop if it is not yet open, and has not registered to receive Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) events.
When you drag the images to the Photoshop app itself in XP and earlier, after it is already open, I believe DDE would come into play, and the number of images you could D&D at once becomes unlimited, as the "drop" operation initiates a direct DDE dialog between Photoshop and Explorer.
You, however, are dropping the files on the Photoshop desktop icon, which is in essence trying to start a new copy of CS2 via the command line. I believe there's supposed to be a "convenience" interaction between a temporary new version of Photoshop and the currently running version, where the temporary new version instructs the currently running version to do DDE, but in Vista something's not connecting properly in that interaction. Or perhaps Vista is not supporting the communication between two instances of the same application.
So the question becomes: Why doesn't this convenience interaction, resulting in DDE, work between your open Photoshop app and Vista's equivalent of Explorer the way it did under earlier versions of Windows?
As a workaround, try this: Drag the files to the task bar Photoshop button, then hold them there for a few seconds without dropping them. When Photoshop becomes current, drop the files on the app itself.
I use a Macintosh, so I can't help you with this specific problem, but why don't you use Bridge to select the images and open them in Photoshop? Your workflow sounds like the kind of workflow Bridge is designed for.
Noel, thanks for that tip. I didn't know there was a limit, however all of my images are in a folder on the C:drive and not buried. I think the problem may be elsewhere.
Johan, you make a good point. I don't know why I've not found usefullness from Bridge. I know many photogs like yourself love it. For me, I've never liked the speed of working with Bridge. I find it double-dog slow. For years now, I have edited for best shot, realigned images for printing order, then renumbered everything, all within ACDsee. When I'm done, I close it, then simply D&D an entire team or group, from the explorer window to the CS2 icon. There is nothing faster getting to the color/crop/fix stage within PS. My work flow is lightning fast right now, but Vista has put an end to that. Loading only 5 images at a time sucks. May force me to look at Bridge again out of necessity and I'm not looking forward to that.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
What camera are you using. For events like teams and individuals we also shoot JPEGS with Nikon cameras. We really like Picture Project as it is easy workflow.
It is almost as easy as Photodesk with our Kodak cameras shooting RAW which we use in our two camera rooms.
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White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Noel, when I read your last message, I apparently missed your last line.. the suggestion of a workaround. Thank you!!! Yes, it was swift and it did the trick. Damn, I hate this VISTA OS!
Larry, we use D200's, D1X's and D70's. Never shoot raw, just jpeg-fine. I tried Picture Perfect once. My thing is, early on, I found ACDSee Photo Manager and every time I look at something else, I don't find anything to make me change. I'm used to it, it has everything I need and there's no need to switch. For me, it would not be practical.
larry
ps: Noel, did I mention how thankful I am for your little suggestion??? So simple.. Whodathunkit?
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
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